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A TechCrunch report claims Apple has 1,000 engineers working on the company’s next generation of processors in efforts to lower power usage and size so that form factor no longer becomes an issue during a product's design.

Apple is notorious for adopting technologies later than others, or benefiting from early access to new processors to meet their stringent design demands. The most recent example of Apple opting out of a new tech to maintain battery life and form factor is their lack of implementing LTE 4G network capabilities due to chip sets not meeting their very specific size and power consumption standards.

Apple’s commitment to managing faster processor performance, power consumption and form factor is apparent in their A5 processor. Implemented in the iPad 2 and soon-to-be-released iPhone 4S, the A5 processor has two cores and 9 times the graphical capability of its predecessor the A4 while maintaining the same power consumption.

Many journalists and consumers in the tech industry have expressed their disappointment the iPhone 4S. Some expected an even faster processor, a larger screen, and a completely new physical design. However, it appears their disappointment is a result of Apple’s quality control design elements. Apple is willing to push the envelope and introduce new and exciting products, but they’re usually extremely polished and as a result can take time to emerge. Simply looking at the Apple’s history of iPhone releases would have given everyone a better idea of what was to come than the rampant rumors (3G, 3GS, 4, 4S).

Expectations aside Apple has to deliver, and their increasingly problematic relationship with Samsung has forced them to look elsewhere for chip manufactures. While Apple may be contracting with the Tawainese Semiconductor Maunifacturing Company for the production of the A6 processor, the truth is Samsung is the most reliable and capable chip-maker in the business right now, especially for the volume Apple needs. Hopefully moving away from Samsung doesn’t hurt the quality of Apple’s products.

There seems to be a misconception about Samsung's role in the foundry business. Samsung doesn't dominate the SoC foundry business as they do with componentry. Qualcomm uses Global Foundries for producing its Snapdragon SoC. TI uses Global Founders, UMC (United Microelectronics Corp.), and Samsung for producing its OMAP SoC. Apple is absolutely making the right move by separating itself from a single foundry. Besides, Samsung's own highend tech, the Exynos SoC, doesn't seem to be making its way into anything outside of Samsung's own devices.